The Artful Trade

Inseparable                                                               W. Maguire  copyright 2016 When I was 17 and living on my own,certain that I knew more about anything than anyone around me, I took a job for a few months as a janitor at an old folks home. My friends called it the Home for the Nearly Dead.  It was out at the edge of town far from view, like it was slowly being pushed out there to the very precipice of living. The building was a sad and decrepit little place with peeling paint and linoleum floors and a funeral home next door. That part of town had its own zip code and some of the townspeople called it the Hereafter, like it was a final stop between living and whatever comes later. Passing through one day I saw a help wanted sign and answered it.  I was poor and dumb and usually hungry an...

Night Vision                                                       W. Maguire    copyright 2016  When I was a kid I answered an ad for a job working as an electricians assistant. The old man….almost 35… asked me what I knew about voltage and amps and circuits. In a rare moment of candor I stared hard at him…all of 14…and said “Nothin’. He nodded and gave me the job. That summer he tried to teach me why electricity was the greatest power on earth...because for the most part it ran unseen in the dark through wires and delivered us light. To him to it was almost as if it was stolen from God. We spent about a month that summer changing out substandard wires in some townhouses. A couple had caught fire from some faulty wiring and the insurance company wanted it pulled. One day I had some of the wire we had torn out in hand. ...